Salathé Piton on Ebay

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Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Original Post - Jul 4, 2011 - 12:13pm PT
Somebody is selling a Salathé piton on ebay...I sure hope this is a legitimate seller.

http://shop.ebay.com/mook424/m.html?_trksid=p4340.l2562
Captain...or Skully

climber
or some such
Jul 4, 2011 - 12:20pm PT
Apparently, he thinks it's worth 10-12 Grand.
Yeesh.
It's just a pin, after all.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 12:23pm PT
There are a few of these missing from established collections that show up with a cloud around them occasionally. I hope this isn't one of those.
Caveman

climber
Cumberland Plateau
Jul 4, 2011 - 12:32pm PT
$100.00 shipping via usps priority mail. At least the shipping is reasonable.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 12:49pm PT
No diamond "P" no Salathé...
MisterE

Social climber
Bouldering the Gnar
Jul 4, 2011 - 01:15pm PT
It has the diamond P with "CV" below it - looks authentic.

Anyone know what the CV stands for?
Off White

climber
Tenino, WA
Jul 4, 2011 - 01:37pm PT
Is MTucker the seller?
steelmnkey

climber
Vision man...ya gotta have vision...
Jul 4, 2011 - 01:39pm PT
This piton was hand made by Anton Salathe and has his trademark Diamond P logo clearly stamped into the piton’s chromemoly steel.

Who the hell is ANTON Salathe?

Must be Anton Nelson and John Salathe's love child...
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 02:46pm PT
Too funny...I didn't catch that detail!
Doug Robinson

Trad climber
Santa Cruz
Jul 4, 2011 - 03:06pm PT
Interested that it's located in the Valley.

For that kind of coin it could become tempting to have a diamond-P stamp made up and hand, uh, "forge" some of that "chromemoly." Was that the metal in old Model A axles, the supposed source of "Anton's" metal stock?

If you were a legitimate seller, wouldn't you want to tell the story of where you came across that sucker? Something beyond "may well have been used on the first ascent of Sentinel Rock"? More than one party has hiked all the way up Little Yosemite Valley to climb Sugarloaf Dome, for instance, on the hope that Salathe might have left a pin on his FA in 1951.
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 03:15pm PT
Chouinard and Frost swept those old Salathé routes for hardware back in the early sixties. “We were interested in his routes for more than just the climbing. Yvon had a Salathé piton but I didn’t, so we were out scouring the place looking for them. As far as Salathé pitons left in climbs, those guys weren’t too shabby, they didn’t leave much laying around. We did Sugarloaf. We did Church Tower. We did the Northeast Bowl on Sentinel. I finally climbed by a Salathé ring wafer on the South Face of Rixon’s and Harry Daley liberated it for his own collection. He even stamped his own initials on it. Sacrilege!” -Tom Frost

"Salathé saw the need for tougher pitons- thin, reusable ones that could be forced farther into bottomed cracks and pounded into contorted cracks without buckling. He wanted a piton that would dominate the granite, not the other way around…Salathé simply used bars of 40/60 carbon and vanadium alloy steel, which he could have obtained easily and cheaply…The resulting hand-forged and heat-treated pitons, beautifully fashioned into the standard horizontal shape, were far tougher than the European pitons of the day. Most of these handsome objects bore an imprint, a tiny “P” inside a diamond, the logo of his Peninsula Wrought Iron Works."- Steve Roper Camp 4

The notion that John started out with actual axles as metal source is pretty well put to bed by Roper. Same sort of alloy however...

If you were a serious collector that mark would have to be authenticated.

E- Chris Vandiver isn the only CV that comes to mind...
karabin museum

Trad climber
phoenix, az
Jul 4, 2011 - 03:33pm PT
http://www.supertopo.com/climbers-forum/945103/Value-of-an-Original-Salathe-Piton

Considering how many Salathe pitons are out there it is not even considered rare or even priceless. An original "Nose route" stoveleg piton is priceless
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 03:41pm PT
Because of the ease of driving and cleaning a horizontal style piton in granite corners and flakes, John didn't make very many vertical pitons other than wafers that I have come across personally.

More likely WWII era surplus with an RCS stamp on it and nothing else visible.
Captain...or Skully

climber
or some such
Jul 4, 2011 - 05:50pm PT
Anton Salathe'....Hehehe.
Peter Haan

Trad climber
San Francisco, CA
Jul 4, 2011 - 05:55pm PT
Stevie, I have emailed Vandiver just now. I am almost certain this pin was not his at some point---I don't recall him ever taking the time to actually effing stamp his stuff like this. Anyway, I am sure he will reply very soon. Did you know he lives in Bainbridge Island now?
Steve Grossman

Trad climber
Seattle, WA
Topic Author's Reply - Jul 4, 2011 - 05:58pm PT
That is news to me Peter!
Fritz

Trad climber
Choss Creek, ID
Jul 4, 2011 - 06:04pm PT
Roxjox: Makes sense to me that RCS on your old pin would be initials for Rock Climbing Section. The climbing part of the old Sierra Club, when they were just having fun in the mountains.

Here's a link: http://angeles.sierraclub.org/news/SS_2011-06/rockclimbing.asp
Lambone

Ice climber
Ashland, Or
Jul 4, 2011 - 06:35pm PT
Crazy, I mean it's a cool piece of climbing history (assuming it's real),but 10 grand? WTF?
JEleazarian

Trad climber
Fresno CA
Jul 4, 2011 - 07:10pm PT
It would amaze me that anyone who knows what a Salathe piton is would be able or willing to pay $10,000 - $12,000 for one, unless the income levels of dirtbags his risen a lot since my day.

John
Captain...or Skully

climber
or some such
Jul 4, 2011 - 07:17pm PT
Perhaps they think that History is valuable. In a creepy, opportunistic way, perhaps.
They're half right. ;-)
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